Stephen Dubner

I don't mean to accuse you of chasing the money yourselves.

You say, you know, you're responding to the market.

But in a case like this, where you guys were known as a running back agency and then the market for running backs changes really pretty dramatically.

I mean, who ends up representing the running backs?

Just different agents who are starting out, who don't have as much luxury to pick their roster the way you guys do.

Is that the way it works?

What about rule changes that facilitated an opening up of the passing game?

When you say that the NFL responded to what the market wants, give me some specific examples of how the league has added leverage to make passing more prominent, either passing and or quarterback play more prominent.

Let's talk about injuries and perishability generally.

Just talk about the physical punishment that comes along with running back position, where it ranks with other offensive players.

What Whitney is talking about here when he says running backs by committee is when teams substitute in multiple players throughout the game or the season to share the workload.

Here again is Brian Burke, the ESPN analyst.

I think when most people watch football, they see the quarterback hand the ball to the running back who, when a play succeeds, he gets through the line and then keeps running and gains a bunch of yards and finally gets tackled.

And they think, oh, my God, that running back is so talented.

Explain what's actually happening to make that run a success.

And then the people executing those blocks, let's just talk about the offensive line.

There's one running back who carries the ball, who succeeds.

But then there are five or six other guys who are probably averaging, what, around 290 pounds on the offensive line?

Oh, gosh, probably more now.

Yeah.